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Mammal
Lactation |
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How
do other mammals nurse?
By
Dia L. Michels
Reproduced with kind permission. |
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Days
and nights we stayed up in the bracken pile, curled around one another, while I
gave suck and licked and settled squabbles. They fed and slept and fed and
squabbled, and I watched their small, sleek bodies plumping up with milk. Their
eyes were shut, their small heads pushed into my flank, muzzles butting, jaws
working hard in the rhythm of life, which is, at first, no more than suck
and swallow.
From Fire, Bed & Bone, Henrietta Branford, Candlewick Press, 1998
There are over 4200 species of mammals on our planet.
Mammals are animals that have a backbone, have hair or fur, are warm-blooded and
whose females nurse their babies with milk. Each of these milks contains water,
proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, cellular content and
anti-infective agents. But each species of mammal produces a milk that is
qualitatively different than the milk of other species, a milk that is perfectly
suited for the growth and development of the offspring of that particular
species.
The composition of the milk is related to the rate of
growth of a species. Human milk is low in both protein and fat. Mammals with
high fat content generally have young who need to form a thick coat of blubber
to protect them from the cold. Mammals with a high protein content generally
have young where growth is rapid and the young mature in a short time. Humans
are among the slowest growing of all mammals.
Percent Protein and Fat in Milk
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Species
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%
Protein
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%
Fat
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Human
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0.9
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3.8
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Talapoin monkey
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2.1
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3.0
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Goat
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2.9
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4.50
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Cow
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3.41
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3.7
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African elephant
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4.0
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5.0
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Black bear
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7.0
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25.1
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Little brown bat
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8.5
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15.8
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Gray seal
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9.2
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59.8
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Cat
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10.6
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10.8
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Blue whale
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11.9
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40.9
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House mouse
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12.5
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27.0
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One important feature of all non-human mammals is that
they suckle their young until they are able to become independent. Breastfeeding
is the crucial bridge between infancy and maturity. Here’s how some different
mammals breastfeed...
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female duck-billed platypus breastfeeds without benefit of a breast or a
nipple. The mammary glands rest underneath the mother's chest. The youngster
pushes against the chest wall with his soft, pliable bill, then licks the
oozing milk off his mother's skin and hair. |
| Whales
need to preserve their sleek, hydrodynamically efficient shape. The mother's
milk glands are below her thick blubber layer. This inside location also
protects the milk from cold. The baby nudges the area and milk-thick as
cream-spurts out. A baby Pacific gray whale can drink 80 pounds of
breastmilk a day. |
| Hippos
are born underwater-and nurse underwater, too. The mother puts her head
under water and boosts the newborn to the surface to breathe. Then the baby
goes under again, finds a nipple and suckles, instinctively folding down his
ears and closing his nostrils. Every twenty to forty seconds, he bobs to the
surface to breathe and swallow. |
| Female
and young lions live together in a pride. In one pride, all the lionesses
take care of all the cubs. Unlike almost all other mammals, any lioness will
wet-nurse any cub. A napping lioness who has been huting all night doesn't
pay much attention to who is suckling on her. And because they are all so
closely related, a lioness helps the family no matter whose baby she nurses. |
| The
hooded seal lives about thirty years, but spends only four days nursing and
being a child, the shortest nursing period of any mammal. They live at sea,
but they must give birth and nurse out of the water. The only surface
available is floating ice. Pups are born when the ice is beginning to melt
and break up. A sudden storm might send pieces crashing together, crushing
moms and pups. Or an ice floe might split, and moms and pups could be
separated. A short childhood helps avoid these perils. |
| Orangutans
breastfeed, ride on their mother's body and sleep in her hest for seven
years-among the longest nursing period of any mammal. The young stay with
their mothers at least until a new baby arrives; males begin to wander off
then, but females may stay around for a while observing how babies are cared
for. They are accomplished acrobats, often nursing upside down-hanging by a
hand and a foot from a branch. |
| Baby
animals are weaned when the mother is newly pregnant or preparing for
another pregnancy. In western culture, today, the most common reason cited
for human weaning is in preparation to return to a job outside the home. |
Reprinted with
permission from Breastfeeding at a Glance, By Dia L. Michels and Cynthia
Good Mojab, M.S.with Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam, Ph.D. Platypus Media, 2001, ISBN:
1-930775-05-9.
Adapted from: If
My Mom Were A Platypus: Mammal Babies and their Mothers. By Dia L. Michels,
Illustrated by Andrew Barthelmes, Platypus Media, 2005, ISBN: 1-930775-35-0.
This handout is
available at: http://platypusmedia.com/docs/mamlactate.html.
It may be copied and distributed without permission.
For more information, contact Dia Michels at Dia@PlatypusMedia.com
or visit www.PlatypusMedia.com or call 1-877-PLATYPS (toll-free) or
1-202-546-1674.
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